Reasons Between England And Spain During The Age Of Exploration

There were many causes of exploration in this time period. There was a large desire to find an easy pathway to Asia. This was important to Europeans because in Asia there were spices, silks, and wealth. Most of the European nations were also after new territory to make colonies and extend their empires. Spain’s main concern was mineral wealth. They went looking for “El Dorado” or the city of Gold. Spain, France, and England were interested in spreading Christianity as well. When the Spanish Crown approved Christopher Columbus and his men to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, their main goal was to find a more accessible and faster way to get to India. The previous route took you all the way around Africa and took a hefty amount of time. It would benefit Spain more if a faster way was discovered. The Spanish were hoping to find and quicker way and when they did, they had planned to regulate the path and force those who use it to pay Spain. In the eyes of the Spanish this was ideal and very much wanted by the Spanish crown. When Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, he believed he had reached India and called the inhabitants of the island Indians. This was not the case, Columbus had actually reached land where no European nations had current colonies and was unknown to them. This caused other European powers to assemble groups to travel to

1.) The desire to find new trade routes to Asia was one of the motivations for European explorations. Europeans were seeking the wealth of Africa and Asia. They wanted profit, they wanted gold. The spice market was also a huge profit of trading and several countries tried to gain control of spice trade. Another motivation was God and religion. Europeans wanted to spread the teachings of the Gospel to other parts of the world. They believed it was their duty to spread the word of God. Lastly, land was another motivation for European explorations. Some rulers, especially the King of Spain, and the King of Portugal, wanted to claim as much land as they could. The more land and money a country owned, the better their chance of domination in Europe.

Did you know that the Age of Exploration was one the most important time in history for the world. The Age of Exploration began in the early 1500’s in the nation of Portugal under leadership of Henry the Navigator. The first expedition to circle the globe was led by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The causes of the Age of Exploration was to look for new trade routes and spread religion. The effects of the Age of Exploration were slavery and disease.

The main idea behind the voyage was to find a faster route to the Indies, as well as introduce Christianity and The King and Queen to the new world along with its inhabitants. As said by Columbus “Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.” Like said, it shows that Columbus wished to find a faster route, so Spain could easily be able to obtained traded goods which would produce more profit for the country of Spain. This kind of shows that Spain needed to find this route due

Though, Columbus’s voyage was unsuccessful, it created a fluctuation of quest throughout the other European superpowers to find a trade route to India. Similar to Spain, France had an Italian merchant Giovanni Verrazano.In addition, England hired an Italian merchant John Cabot. After the Italian merchant voyage to find India's route route fail the motivation for wealth gradually grows,though Spain differs due to motivate of glory and God. Therefore, it is elucidated that finding a trade route to India through hiring Italian merchants were similar factors in the motivations between the major European superpowers there are differences lay in their individual methods for abstracting

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave funds to the Italian explorer and navigator, Christopher Columbus, to discover a new route to Asia. By finding a new route to Asia, Spain would have the advantage in trading with them by having access to a shorter and safer trade route instead of having to go around the African continent. Why did King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella hire Columbus instead of a Spanish Explorer? The deal between Spain and Columbus was that any minerals and resources found would go to Spain and Columbus would become Governor of any place he landed at. In this way, there are many advantages and disadvantages of working relationships between foreign parties.

First and foremost, Columbus’ experience was of high value to the Spanish monarchy. Despite initially following in the footsteps of his father as a member of the wool weaving industry, Columbus was quick to pick up mapmaking and sailing as studies (Mariners Museum). Columbus was on the sea even as a teen, joining expeditions through the Aegean and Mediterranean seas (Don Quijote). It was difficult to find such an experienced and educated seaman in contemporary Spain. Many of the future influential conquistadors had yet to be born; the oldest was Francisco Pizarro, and even he was only sixteen years of age when Columbus set sail in 1492. With experience being such a valuable commodity, it was difficult for the Spanish monarchy to justify allowing Columbus to simply offer his skills to another country. Columbus’

European nations in the 15th century began exploring new lands with three motives: religion, wealth, and glory. It was made possible by advances in naval fleet building and navigation, first pioneered by the Portuguese. Europeans began to be involved in extensive exploration, coming in contact with Africa, Americas and their prime target Asia. The main targets of the pioneering Portugese and Spanish was to find and alternate trade route for the Indies trade and also promote Christianity to the new lands. As the century unfolded, the search for newer territories to colonize and shortern routes to the exotic land of spices and silk became the initial driving force for the intensive early exploration by the Europeans .

Christopher Columbus is known for being an explorer and is said to have made one of the most important voyages in world history without even wanting to. Something else that is also believed is that he “opened up” the Americas to European nations, which changed the course of American history. Before he went on his voyage though, he was in need of resources. So he asked Portugal, France, Italy among many other countries but they all denied Columbus and thought his statement was incorrect. Columbus’ statement was that he had found a faster way to get to Asia than the Portuguese had, which was going around the continent of Africa. Columbus lived a majority of his life in Spain, so when it came to setting sail for the west, Spain was one of the first nations he asked for funding. Though it took Columbus a little more than a few years to convince a nation to fund his voyage, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand from Spain subsequently granted to endow him in 1492. He would then leave for “Asia” on August 3, 1492. There are many unanswered questions and thoughts on why Spain decided to finally fund Columbus’ voyage, especially since he was an explorer that was born in Italy.

Hence, The Spanish explorations were most notably able to occur due to the King and Queen’s efforts to unify the Spanish nation and the growing competition between the unified Spain and its neighboring country, Portugal (Nardo, 1947). The King and Queen did many other things to improve and fund exploration in Spain, and perhaps the most significant thing they did was sponsor Christopher Columbus after he proposed an exploration to India, guaranteeing that he could discover and establish valuable trade routes from India to Eastern Asia (Nardo, 1947). The King and Queen agreed to sponsor him because Spain often sought out trade opportunities and wanted to find gold and valuable spices from Asia, specifically from India, and this exploration almost guaranteed all of that (Nardo, 1947). Therefore, the reasons for Spanish exploration include the desire to establish trade routes between India and Eastern Asia, to find valuable resources, the empire’s competition with Portugal, and the King and Queen’s unification of their kingdoms and sponsorship of Christopher

The time period of the fifteenth century through the early seventeenth century is known as the age of exploration. The age of exploration was when countries’ main goals were to find trade routes and convert the unconverted. Two big contributors to this era was Spain and Portugal. Both countries were active in finding trade routes and new trading routes. Finding trade routes to India turned caused both countries to find parts of the “new world”.

Before a proper explanation can be given, there must be a background to give the reader a brief glimpse of who the man Columbus was. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451. Columbus also was the child of a pair of two wool merchants. Columbus, during his early years worked on a merchant ship. Afterwards, Columbus sought out a higher education in the fields of cartography, navigation, and astronomy. These topics that he learned later would fuel his ambition for exploration . After receiving permission to explore, he began his journey for fame and gold. Initially, Columbus planned to sail from more foreign ports such as England and Portugal, but was denied. Then, he sought patronage from Spain, who had an interest in his plan.

European exploration wasn’t only entirely based of one motivation in the 15th and 16th century. Although many voyages of discovery were started in search of wealth, religion was also a big reason for exploring other continents. Religion wasn’t the main motivation for European exploration in the 15th and 16th century. Instead, the main motivation was economic motives, which was closely followed by religion, and to a lesser extent was technological developments.

     The Age of Exploration was a time of struggle and wealth for many European countries. The pursuit of a trade route to the Far East led many countries across the ocean, looking for the great spice cities that were rumored by Marco Polo. These countries knew that whoever found the shortest or best route would become rich, very quickly. Explorers from many European countries embarked on journeys that not even they had any clue where they were going. This search for the Far East led to many discoveries that would otherwise have never been found.

During the Age of Exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, many people from European countries sailed across the Atlantic ocean in search of gold, spices, and other valuable materials. The value of these materials increased drastically when they were gathered straight from the source; this factor influenced many prominent explorers to seek out and bring back these goods on their own for personal gain. Examples of prominent explorers consist of Christopher Columbus of Spain, Vasco da Gama of Portugal who sailed in order to obtain spices, silk, and porcelain as well as wanting to spread Catholicism, and Walter Raleigh from England who explored purely for treasure. When exploring, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama approached the indigenous people in a similar manner. They viewed the natives as conquerable and considered them to live in a simple society. Walter Raleigh addressed the indigenous people differently, however, rather than seeing them as inferior to him and his countrymen, he approached them with a neutral mindset and was often respectful in regards to their differing beliefs. The contrast in how Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama approach the native people in relation to Walter Raleigh is solely dependent on religion and how the spread of Catholicism was Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama’s main focus when on their exploration.